


Trust Is A Leap of Faith

by theloverneverleaves



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Battlestar Galactica Fusion, Alternate Universe - Space, But nothing too heavy or heartbreaking, I'm not that cruel, M/M, Minor-ish character death, Some Descriptions of Violence, Very Loose BSG, and a lot of angst, but it ends hopefully?, it's been a long time, there's a lot of drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 02:11:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10452627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theloverneverleaves/pseuds/theloverneverleaves
Summary: It's the end of the universe, and humanity is on the run. Magnus is one of the best pilots humanity has, and he definitely shouldn't be in love with his commanding officer and de facto best pilot in the fleet. Things would be a lot easier if he wasn't, actually.But he is. And it's going to cause him more pain than he realised.aka. Malec Battlestar Galactica fusion AU





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is for Week 2 of [Shadowhunters AU Mondays](shadowhuntersaumondays.tumblr.com), and I decided to do a crossover with Battlestar Galactica because I like pain??
> 
> If you haven't seen the series, don't worry, I try and explain most of the concepts within the story itself. All you really need to know is the Cylons are a robot/synthetic race that wiped out humanity and now they're running across space trying to find a new home - Earth. There are Cylons that look and pretty much are human biologically, but their personalities are uploaded and thus can be downloaded into new bodies when they die.
> 
> If you're not clear on anything, or want to see more of this, just drop me a comment <3
> 
> You can get at me on [isabellebiwoods](http://isabellebiwoods.tumblr.com).

It was never going to end _well_.

Magnus had known that from the start. It wasn't like he was _stupid_. Under any other circumstances, he would never have done any of this. He never would have looked twice at Captain Alec Lightwood, CAG of the best Viper pilot unit in the galaxy. Captain of the _only_ Viper unit in the galaxy. He never would have pushed it so hard, never would have flirted like there was no tomorrow, because there might just be no tomorrow.

Well, maybe he would have looked twice, but still. It wasn't worth his career to pursue it.

But the thing was, this was no normal situation. The Twelve Colonies that had made up their universe were gone. Twelve planets, razed to the ground in an instant. The Cylons had seen to that. The grand robot inventions humanity had created to make their lives so much better, the latest new gadget to solve all the ills across all the worlds. But then the Cylons had gotten smart. It wasn't like the First Cylon War, where they were just fighting off an enemy in the skies and on the fringe. This was different. The Cylons had wiped all life from the face of the galaxy, and all they had left were the forty thousand souls they'd managed to bundle into the fleet and fly off into the unknown.

Suddenly everything felt precious. Water. Air. Sleep. Free time. Life. Love.

Love most of all.

He'd thought he'd been in love, at the start of all this. Even when they'd had to flee, even when the Cylons were chasing them through the stars, launching attacks at every opportunity, torturing them until they crumbled, he'd had something to go back to. Maybe home was a bunk on the last military ship in the galaxy, but he had Camille. Camille, who was elegant as she was clever, who took to command so very easily, who impressed everyone from Admiral Garroway to Specialist Lewis. She was stunning under pressure, and invaluable.

But then it turned out his girlfriend was actually a Cylon. That kind of put a damper on the relationship.

Even after Lieutenant Santiago put a bullet through her skull, he still had to see her. Still encountered her any time they happened to bump into the human Cylon models in their race across the galaxy, in their mission to save humanity, to find a new home. He'd watched his girlfriend die, and there she still was. So many copies of her, all as vindictive and demanding and selfish as the first. It occured to him that maybe he'd only worn that relationship for so long because it was the literal end of days and they were all under stress. Chasing down a pipe dream of the Thirteenth Colony, of Earth, a religious myth that might not even be real. Camille had been safe, familiar in a world of so many unknowns.

But Camille was gone. He had to let that go. She was a Cylon, the enemy. She couldn't be trusted.

And she wasn't the only one.

There were nine models. That was what someone had said, what had been whispered by Luke and Maryse, when they thought he couldn't hear. Camille was one. There was some blond boy with an unpleasant sneer, and an older man, someone Magnus hadn't recognised on the files the pair had up on screen. But that left so many others. They could be anywhere, anyone. They bled the same as humanity did, bioengineering replicating what they hated so much. His friend, Catarina was working on a test, but it was so complex. There was no easy way to tell. They could be in the fleet, and they'd have no idea. It would be the perfect plan for the Cylons. Wipe out the Twelve Colonies, embed themselves in the survivors and sabotage the escape. Humanity ends. Mission accomplished. Then they could do... whatever they wanted, really. They had their motherships, their endless copies of humans and the endless legions of robots. They'd win.

They couldn't trust anyone.

And yet, lying in his single bunk, with Alec Lightwood snuggled against his chest, nose nestled in the crook of his neck, Magnus forgot all of that. He forgot the galaxy was ending, forgot that in a few hours they'd both be back out in their Viper jets, battling the Cylons head to head, or escorting the civilian ships through the emptiness of space. He forgot in a few hours they'd be back to their callsigns, Warlock and Archer. He forgot that in a few hours, Alec would have to be his superior officer, and Magnus would be back to being the best damn pilot in the squad, apart from maybe Alec himself.

For now, they were just Magnus and Alec. And it was all that mattered.

A frown was nestled on Alec's brow as he slept, breaths deep and yet sleep shallow. Magnus knew it would only take one wrong move for him to wake the sleeping angel, and so he simply decided not to move. Alec was the only thing he'd won out of all this. They'd met before, back on Caprica. Alec was Maryse Lightwood's son. Of course they'd met. Maryse was a brilliant, fearsome commander, and Isabelle was a brilliant scientist and medic. Robert had died heroically in the first Cylon war. A family of successes. He and Alec were both trained pilots, so they'd crossed paths. But never for long. Never enough for him to take the time to chase down the obvious attraction that lay between them. Not until they'd been trapped on the same ship together, on the same squad, in the only fleet ship left in the galaxy. They didn't have enough Viper pilots, and every time they went out they seemed to lose more. Of course they worked together. It made it so much more inappropriate, but still, neither of them had been able to refuse.

Magnus couldn't say it was a wrong decision. Not lying there, in his bunk, with that man lying across him so peacefully. Magnus knew how he liked his coffee in the morning, and exactly how many words Jace Herondale needed to make Alec snap at him. He knew how proud Alec was of the squad in general, how his students like Maia and Aline made him all the prouder. How the younger ones looked up to him, and how Alec looked after all his squad with a care that was touching and only made Magnus love him all the more. Magnus knew that if this was Caprica, and none of this had happened, he would have long since asked Alec Lightwood to marry him. They'd been together for over a year. It was long past time. He knew that if life was normal, he would have been dreaming of a wedding and children, not the simple prayer that they both lived through the next day and no one punished them for fraternization.

They were too valuable to lose, the two of them. But that didn't mean the Admiral wouldn't try and teach them a lesson, if he had to.

The sound of a door slamming down the corridor echoed through the room, and Alec woke with a start. Probably one of the maintence hatches. But still, Alec was awake, and Magnus gently stroked his hair, trying to soothe him. "It's okay, love. Go back to sleep," Magnus encouraged softly, but Alec huffed, curling tighter against Magnus' side.

"No, it's okay. I didn't meant to fall asleep on you," he said, scrunching up his nose a little. "Literally."

"It's okay. You were exhausted."

"We get so little off duty time together, though. I didn't want to waste it," Alec complained softly, and Magnus smiled, leaning in to press a soft kiss to Alec's temple.

"It wasn't a waste. Never," Magnus promised him. Alec smiled softly, leaning up, capturing Magnus' lips in a soft, slow kiss. It lasted a long, sensuous moment, and Magnus couldn't help but think selfishly that even if the galaxy was destroyed and all of humanity was either dead or under seige, he didn't care. He didn't care, because he had Alec Lightwood, and he'd gladly burn down the entire galaxy all over again if that gave him _this_.

"I love you," Alec murmured quietly, words they'd been exchanging for months still feeling as precious now as they had the first time. Magnus smiled in return, holding Alec just a little closer, just a little tighter.

"I love you too," Magnus replied easily. A soft peace and affection blanketed the room, and Magnus sighed.

Then his door was thrust open, and all of that was gone.

Before Magnus had the time to protest or throw a witty quip, there were hands all over them, pulling them from the bunk. It wasn't exactly the first time Magnus had been thrown out of bed, but it was the first time a collection of armed soldiers had done it whilst pointing guns at him. Actually that was... a point. Why the guns? It wasn't as if Magnus hadn't expected to given a telling off for fraternizing one day. But it was also the end of the galaxy. No one cared anymore. When it came to Lewis and Herondale, the boys had just stolen their clothes for their bunks and left them to wander in their underwear for a bit. This seemed... extreme.

Then Magnus noticed the fact that they were putting handcuffs on Alec, ignoring the fact he was shirtless, ignoring everything other than the need to get him arrested. Alec's face was pressed against the wall, and Magnus instinctively took a step forward, intending to defend him. That was _Alec_ they were treating like a criminal. Alec! But there was a hand stopping him, and as soon as he went to fight it off, he noticed exactly whose hand it was.

"Ragnor, what the hell is going on?" Magnus demanded, shrugging his hand off anyway. There was a sorrow in Ragnor's eyes that he didn't like, and Magnus narrowed his eyes. "Look, I know it's against protocol to be sleeping together but-"

"It's not about that, Magnus."

"Then _what_?"

"Catarina got the test working. He's a Cylon."

And as Alec was dragged away, Magnus felt the bottom fall out of his world.

Not again, he prayed silently. Please, Gods, not again.

 

* * *

 

Booze was scarce. One of the mechanics had a microbrew working in the engineering bay, but alcohol was one of those things that they'd all more or less had to leave behind. At least, the fine wines and brandies of the Colonies were long gone. They just didn't have the ingredients aboard a military cruiser. One of the civilian ships was used as a farm, growing produce under artificial UV light. But they didn't exactly have the spare produce to turn into alcohol, not anymore. Not with so many mouths to feed on so little.

It was times like these Magnus wished he could still drink. The numbness of being drunk would have been a blessed relief.

Instead he was running sims again. It's the third time that that day. In fact, Magnus had been running sims three times a day, every day for two weeks. Because it's been two weeks since Alec was dragged from his bed. Two weeks since Alec was...

Isabelle and Maryse were gone too. Ragnor had mysteriously taken on the title of XO. Magnus had been by the medical and research wing. Catarina was always in charge, but she shared a lab space with Isabelle. That half of the room felt empty and cold without the dark haired beauty bouncing around, muttering under her breath and tossing ideas across the space.

Most of all there was a gaping hole in Magnus' life. The nights he would have spent with Alec, the meals, the free time, the shifts... it all felt wrong. Like a bad dream. When Admiral Garroway had pulled him aside and asked him to take over as CAG, Magnus hadn't known whether to laugh or cry. He'd wanted that position, a lifetime ago. Back when he could have career ambitions, not survival ambitions. He'd always wanted his own squad, his own Command. But it was Alec's post. Alec's job. Alec's crew. Alec's friends, Alec's family, Alec's scores, Alec, Alec, Alec.

Alec Lightwood made up the very fabric of his life, and now he was just _gone_. There had never been an Alec Lightwood at all. Just a Cylon, a mass of bio engineered molecules and a programmed personality added on top. There was nothing there, had never been anything there.

But if it had been nothing and meant nothing, why did Magnus feel that hole so very deeply?

It was different to Camille. Camille had been a traitor. That was how they'd caught her, she'd been passing information to the Cylon fleet. She'd tried to pin the blame onto Maia, causing months of distrust in the fleet. Jace had nearly shot the girl for being a traitor. Their relationship had never been the same since. But Camille had been evil. She'd ultimately caused them to lose a civilian ship, and seven hundred people in the process. Innocent, civilian people.

She'd been twisted on a personal level too. She'd been manipulative, demanding, carried out a paraody of what she thought love was supposed to be without ever really carrying it through. She'd used him, and he'd been too blind to see it until the end.

Alec didn't make sense. That attraction couldn't be faked, the chemistry between them. The months they'd spent together, exchanging hopes, dreams, desires. Alec smiled and laughed and told him he loved him. Alec had nearly died for him. More than once. Alec had nearly gotten himself stranded in space to rescue Magnus once. His ship had failed planetside on a research mission - Alec had stormed through Cylon fire to get him. Why would he do that? Wouldn't it be easier to just leave him to die?

It wasn't just that though. He knew how Alec was towards Isabelle, and towards Jace. Jace had been adopted by the Lightwoods at sixteen. Not old enough to be officially raised by them, but enough to consider them family. He could see Jace was struggling with all this too, but Jace had been to see them, in the cells. Maryse, Isabelle and Alec were locked up there, in separate cells, under armed guard. Every time Jace came back, he looked a little more haunted. He never spoke about what happened down there.

Magnus had thought he'd decided he didn't want to know. But that was last week.

Last week, he hadn't woken up from a nightmare at 4am, dreaming that they'd had Alec at one of the airlocks, that Camille and Luke had forced him to shoot the man he loved and throw him into the black. Magnus knew logically, it wouldn't do anything. Alec was a Cylon. He was a robot. He'd come back, just like Camille. There were hundreds of him, somewhere else. But that didn't explain the wetness on his cheeks or the trembling in his hands.

So there he was. Running sims again. Going through the motions in the Viper combat simulator, nailing every target that came up. It was a points game, all about scores and talents. When Magnus had first run this, he'd gotten one of the highest scores for a new recruit in a long time. But this one was the one they used for practice and training. It had the entire squad in it, past and present.

Magnus finished the route, and the scores blinked up. He was getting worse.

Alec was still at the top.

Magnus tossed himself out of the machine, running a hand through his hair. He had to get away from all this, somehow. Alec... Alec was gone. The Alec he'd been in love with had never existed. It was like Camille all over again, only it hurt all the more, because he'd never loved her like he'd loved _him_. Still loved him, if he was being honest. But that was the thing about being trapped on the last military ship in the galaxy. He had nowhere to run, nowhere to go, and no matter where he went, Alec would always still be just downstairs.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Magnus whirled at the voice, spinning to find Jace sitting in the corner of the room, legs stretched out in front of him, watching old vids on the screen in front of him. Another training tactic of Alec's. Studying. Damn, he'd loved to study, to analyse. Maybe that was why. He was a robot, after all. Maybe that was why he was such a good shot. Cylons wouldn't be anything less than perfect at anything. Of course not. That was what they hated about humanity. Imperfection. Camille had ranted something along those lines, about how humanity didn't deserve the chances it had been given, that their God demanded the galaxy be cleansed, so they could start over. So _Cylons_ could start over.

Robots running the galaxy. Nothing could go wrong there.

Magnus sighed, the fight draining out of him before he moved over to the row Jace was sitting in at the front of the briefing room. The large screen at the front of the room was still running old fight footage. Alec's, Magnus realised dully. Of course it was Alec's.

"They're still the same, you know. Alec, Izzy. Not Maryse. It's like something in her snapped when they arrested her. She sounds just like the rest of them, ranting on about eradicating humanity and how God demands it and we'll never find the Thirteenth Colony because we don't deserve it. But they... they're still the same."

It was a familiar rhetoric. Camille had done it too. Hidden in plain sight, they started spouting the party lines when it became clear she was caught. She'd promised the rest of the Cylon army would find them, and deal with them. That were all doomed, that they didn't deserve salvation. There was nowhere in the galaxy they could go that the Cylons wouldn't find them and deal with them. That was what they all said, all the models they'd found. They all had the same story, more or less. The models might be a little different, but the story remained the same.

He'd expected the same of Alec and Izzy. It was why he refused to visit. His heart was broken enough without seeing that.

"They're still Cylons," Magnus said flatly. "How can we trust them? They've probably been spying on us all for years."

"I'm not so sure," Jace admitted softly, and Magnus looked over, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not saying they're not Cylons. They both acknowledge that now... it's like whatever memories they had before going... _undercover_ came back. But neither of them want to go back. Say they never agreed with the plan in the first place. They say they want to help."

"Jace... it could be another trap," Magnus warned gently.

"I know! Trust me... I know. I keep thinking about it... I can't _stop_ thinking about it. But... they're still my siblings. And we know about them. What could they have to gain out of staying?"

"What did they have to gain in the first place?"

"Information. Which they know they won't get anymore."

"They could just be waiting to kill us," Magnus pointed out, and Jace sighed deeply.

"I know. But... I can't ignore the part of me that's screaming that they're on our side."

Magnus wanted to believe him, he did... but it was all too much, too good to be true. "I'm not sure you're being objective, Jace-"

"I would never let anyone put this fleet in danger. If I thought they were guilty, I'd throw them out the airlock myself. But..." Jace shook his head softly, watching the film in front of them, watching Alec dive through the air and rescue Jace's ship from near certain destruction. Christ. This was all so messed up. "He's been asking for you." Magnus stilled.

Alec didn't love him. Alec couldn't love him. Alec was a robot. Robots couldn't love. Those two things were facts, they held each other together. Magnus didn't want to consider an alternative.

"He told me to tell you he's sorry. He never meant to hurt you. And... he told me to say that he still wants that beach with you. If you'll have him."

Magnus bit his lip, looking away. Fuck, Alec Lightwood. It wasn't as if they hadn't talked, about what life would be like if they still had a home. Magnus had talked about missing the sun, the real sun. Wanting a sandy beach and the warmth of the day on his skin. He wanted to lie somewhere quiet and listen to the ocean, with the man he loved. Alec had smiled and promised to take him, when he found Earth. They could go together. Magnus had then usually joked about having sex on the beach, and how many hours it would take to get the sand off their skin.

He had wanted to marry Alec on that fantasy beach. And Alec knew it. Promises whispered in the dead of night, about dreams that could never come true.

Robot or not, Alec still knew how to get to his heart in a collection of secondhand words.

Magnus got to his feet and left the training suite without another word to Jace.

Jace, to his credit, didn't say a word.

 

* * *

 

There were six guards in the hallway. Two to each cell. They were armed to the teeth, with body armour and the best rifles left on the ship. Magnus did his best not to peer in the cells, instead focusing the nearest guard. "I'm here to see Alec," Magnus said, glad his voice sounded like steel even if his nerves felt like a pile of goo. He didn't know how he felt, but he knew he had to see Alec for himself. Had to see if what Jace said was true. If any of it was true.

"We're not supposed to let anyone-" the guard started, but a familiar voice cut him off.

"Hey, shut up. Let him in."

Magnus' eyes flicked up, and he smiled wanly. Raphael. He always was so grumpy, but at least he understood. Raphael shot him what could only be described as a sympathetic look, gesturing him over. Magnus caught a glance in through the window and there was Alec. Handcuffed to a chair, feet bound, all wrapped up in chains. It broke his heart. That was funny. Magnus didn't realise there was a piece of it left big enough to break.

"I can give you some time. We'll be watching, just in case," Raphael promised him. Magnus nodded, taking a deep breath and Raphael punched the code in, and the door slid open.

As Magnus stepped instead, Alec didn't even look up. He was a shadow of the man Magnus had been cuddling two weeks ago. He looked gaunt, tired and thin. Some part of him seemed to have given up and died. Magnus hated seeing it. Hated seeing what had become of him. He didn't know what he should be feeling. Part of him wanted to go straight to Ragnor and Luke and scream at them about mistreatment, and yet another part of him said Cylons deserved everything they got. He didn't know what to listen to, what to believe.

He crossed the room slowly, sitting down in the empty chair a few feet away from Alec, an ocean of space between the two seats. As Magnus sat down, Alec glanced up. When he caught sight of Magnus, he instinctively seemed to move to get up, to reach out for Magnus. But his whole body jerked at the chains held him back, and Magnus made no move to get any closer. Alec seemed to cave in on himself, settling back into his chair.

"I wasn't sure you'd come," Alec said softly.

"Me neither," Magnus replied in an equally quiet tone, and Alec looked up at him sadly. There was the tiniest hint of a smile on his face, but it was tinged with such sorrow that Magnus had never seen before. Not even when the world had been ending had Alec looked so _sad_.

"I'm sorry," Alec started softly, and Magnus smiled wryly.

"Yeah, so I heard."

"You spoke to Jace?" Alec asked hopefully. Magnus nodded once.

"You seem to have him fooled. You and your... sister. Not Maryse.... but you.... he seems to think you're not a Cylon or something. That you don't want to kill us."

"Those things don't have to be mututally exclusive," Alec told him gently, and Magnus snorted.

"You're not human. That doesn't leave much room for other options."

"Magnus... it's me. It's still _me_. I still lov-" Alec started, but Magnus shook his head.

"Don't," Magnus snapped, cutting him off. "Someone programmed you. You are not capable of that emotion."

"Says who? A couple of years ago, no one knew there even were human Cylon models. No human knows enough about us to make those kind of statements. The rest of the models... they want to believe they're greater than humanity. That we can aspire to more, that they can be better. But they haven't lived like I have. Haven't been in love like I have."

Magnus wanted to argue, but he knew he couldn't. They'd been running too much to study things. They'd just been trying to survive, never mind the science. Never mind the possibilities. If something was trying to eradicate your species, you didn't stop and ask if it could feel. But that was what Alec wanted him to believe now. That everything was still real. That they could still be together, that Magnus hadn't wasted his heart again.

"I love you, Magnus Bane. Still do. Always," Alec promised him, and Magnus closed his eyes, exhaling deeply. It sounded so good, but...

"How can I believe you? How can I trust you? I could let you out, let everything go back to normal, and tomorrow you could kill me."

"That's the thing about trust, isn't it? It's a leap of faith."

Before Magnus could respond, there was a crash from the hallway, and the room went dark. Getting to his feet, Magnus' hand drifted to his hip and the gun he kept there. There was a heavy thud from outside, and then the door burst open. And there, stood in the doorway, was Maryse Lightwood, gun in her hand, aimed directly at Magnus' chest. Magnus immediately let go of his pistol, putting his hands up. Assessing the situation, Maryse moved to the chair Alec was bound to, hands reaching for the chains, making short work of freeing her supposed son. Could Cylons even have children?

"Come on. We need to leave," she insisted, moving back for the door. Magnus wanted to intercept, but the rifle was still trained on his chest, and he very much liked the idea of living. He was too busy watching Maryse to note that Alec hadn't actually moved. Not until his voice cracked through the silence.

"No."

"What?"

"I'm not going. I'm not going anywhere. This... my home is here," Alec insisted, and Magnus watched, wide eyed.

"These are not your people. They'll never trust you. Besides, we have a job to finish," she pointed out, but Alec shook his head regardless.

"No."

Maryse seemed to be stunned to inaction for a few seconds before whirling around, rifle pointing back at Magnus' chest. "I see. You're too attached. A problem I can solve," she insisted, and then before Magnus could so much as move an inch, he saw her squeezing the trigger, shot going off in the tiny cell.

But something collided with him from the side, there was a second shot, and then everything went silent.

When Magnus' world had stopped spinning, he looked over to see Maryse Lightwood lying on the cell floor, a bullethole through her neck. Blood was pouring all over the floor, and Magnus' own pistol was lying on the floor, smoking from where it had obviously discharged the shot. Magnus looked down, finding his shirt sticky with blood, but there was no pain. Not unless you counted the pressure of something lying on top of him.

Magnus looked up, and there he was. Alec Lightwood, pinning him to the floor, a look of concern and affection in his eyes, mingled with pain. Magnus hands skimmed Alec's frame briefly, and then he found it. The bullethole through his shoulder, blood pouring freely. "Alec!" Magnus couldn't help but exclaim, gently shifting him until he was lying on the floor. Magnus ripped off his tank top, balling it up and pressing it against Alec's wound. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Alec had saved his life. He'd been given the chance to run, to finish his mission, and he'd said no. Then when Maryse had taken action, he'd... he'd shot her, and taken a bullet for him. It didn't make any sense. If this was a ruse, it was all too good to be true.

"I love you. Why wouldn't I?" Alec asked, wincing it pain as Magnus pushed a little harder. Magnus shook his head, laughing a little even as a tear dripped off his chin.

"I love you too, you _idiot_ Cylon," Magnus told him sincerely. "All the robots in all the world, and I had to fall in love with a stupid one." Alec laughed, and Magnus couldn't help but laugh too. God, he never thought he'd hear that again. He'd never realised how good it sounded. How lucky he was to see that smile.

"Still a better shot than you, though," he replied, and Magnus snorted.

"Well, I guess you can't have it all," Magnus retorted. "At least I know who to blame for your good looks though. Someone _designed_ you to be this damn pretty. I had to do it all by hard work and good old fashioned genetic lottery," Magnus teased, and Alec smiled, leaning up a little. And Magnus couldn't help but lean in and kiss him. It might have been marred by blood and pain and everything they still had to overcome, but it was a start.

Raphael burst in with Ragnor, rifles raised, but Magnus waved them both off. "Can you get Catarina? Alec's injured," Magnus asked them. The pair looked around the room, stunned.

"Magnus, what the hell happened?" He noticed Raphael's eyes catching on the details, on his pistol and Maryse, on the wound in Alec's shoulder. Magnus just shrugged, deciding to keep it simple.

"He saved my life."

No, maybe it wasn't easy. And maybe Magnus couldn't be sure he could trust Alec, couldn't be sure it wasn't all a ruse. But he was right about one thing. Trust was a leap of faith.

For Alec? Magnus would make that leap a hundred times over. And for now... that was more than enough.


End file.
